Food Lines We Won’t Cross

It’s been at least a few weeks since I’ve written a post that even mentions the phrase Albert Heijn (my favorite local Dutch grocery store to the uninitiated), so I should have known.

Something was sure to materialize that I’d end up sharing with you here. Little did I realize exactly how special that something would be…

The other day I was poking around the aisles, searching for pancetta. Daughter needed 100 grams of the lovely Italian bacon for a school cooking project.

[A couple answers before you ask: No, she is not enrolled in a ‘home economics’ or ertswhile cooking class. At her school they occasionally incorporate topics such as menu planning, basic cooking terms and skills, and dietary requirements into one of her other courses; something like her Health or phys ed class, I can never remember which. And no, I do not automatically do her school project-related shopping for her. She was busy that afternoon performing public service (i.e., babysitting for a lovely family so that the couple could get away for a nice dinner sans children), and the AH was closing before she would return home.]

So there I am, searching in the meat section. Then the specialty meat section, followed by the sliced cold meats section. And finally in the speciality sliced cold meats section. (I know, that last one was a surprise to me, too.)

On a low shelf near the bottom of the glass refrigerator, I suddenly spied the word pancetta.

Feeling victorious, I reached for a package, intent on figuring out exactly how much constituted 100 grams. You’d think I would know after three years here, but it’s hard to overwrite years of ounces and pounds, cups and half cups floating around in my brain matter.

No sooner had my fingertips touched the Holy Grail, when my eyes happened upon the label of the item a few inches (no, not centimeters) away. I could practically feel the turning of the gears as I translated the two words from Dutch to English.

Paardenvlees.

Horse meat.

I’ll be honest. I had to stifle a gag reflex when the name sunk in.

I’d read that horse meat had been on the Dutch menu in certain pockets of Nederland, but was under the impression that was long ago.

Yet here it was in MY Albert Heijn, all red and sliced up and packaged for sale.

Right now I know the vegetarians in the crowd are screaming at the hypocrisy of it all: I’m fine with eating beef or chicken or pork or pancetta, but cringe at horse meat.

Meanwhile the vegetarians are being drowned out by the yells of the internationalists who are screaming about cultural relativity.

And you know what? They’re both right.

We tend to eat what we grew up eating. Sometimes we get more adventurous and branch out. Sometimes the line is too deeply etched in our minds to consider crossing.

Which explains why I have tried venison, caribou, reindeer and goat. One time each. I thought they were fine but not psychically worth eating again. Had the opportunity to try rabbit and declined. Just. Couldn’t. Do. It. There’s that line again.

It’s also why I could try escargot (again, once for the experience) but will not be checking out frogs legs, snake, cat, dog, sea urchins, certain body parts of various animals, caterpillars, grasshoppers or other creepy crawlies. Can’t help it, I’m simply too squeamish to do so.

This is not a post about moral certitude or pronouncements that this food is ‘okay’ but eating that food isn’t. Not at all. If some Dutchies (or others) want to eat paardenvlees, I have to say that I’m not thrilled about it. But it’s their choice. I suppose I’ll just go to my happy place and sing la-la-la until the thought is no longer stuck in my mind.

Probably just as vegetarians/vegans feel about carnivores and my own love of bacon.

We eat what we do primarily due to cultural mores, unwitting cues telling us ‘this is what we as a group eat’. As we venture forth from our communities, countries and cultures, we find all sorts of new and unusual foods – fruits, vegetables, grains, meats – that we may or may not decide to try.

It’s a personal thing, a cultural thing. More and more, it becomes a global thing. So where exactly is that line for you? I tend to fall further on the ‘let’s try it’ side than some, but certainly not as far as others.

Just a little food for thought…

If you’re up for photos of more unusual foods consumed around the world, here is Oddee’s list of 15 strange foods; they claim they’re the strangest, but really, who’s to say?

Hey, nice photo Jack! It’s interesting when you realize that growing up in those cultures would make it entirely normal for you to eat them. At the same time, members of ohter cultures must think what we (and others) eat is so odd… I’d say that Liam is missing out by not eating seafood, except obviously that’s the line for him.

That episode of An Idiot Abroad where he goes to China; that’s me. Ack. The idea of eating creepy, crawlies gives me the creepy crawlies! I once (was forced to) tried sharks soup and my stomach still turns years and years later.

I couldn’t eat horse either, for what it’s worth. Blergh. I’m a bit the same with rabbit. Mainly because it’s vermin, not because they’re cute and fluffy….

We had rabbit when I used to live in Ireland as a child. I’ve had escargot before too. A few years ago a new restaurant opened in St Albans, the town where I lived in England. They had all sorts of interesting things on the menu: kangaroo, alligator… but I couldn’t try any of them because they weren’t halal.
I’m quite open to trying new things, but find my adventurous streak is now limited by my religious obligations.

Great point Aisha, religious restrictions put an entirely new spin on the issue. The line no longer represents what you won’t eat due to squeamishness, but rather for theological reasons. I always laugh when people say alligator, rattlesnake, etc. ‘tastes like chicken’. Thanks, I’ll stick to chicken!

I have to admit it … I am one of those “Okay, let me try it.” type person. This has lead to bat in Samoa, sea urchins and slug type things in Indonesia, more bugs then you can imagine in Thailand. But also mountain oysters in Kansas, rattlesnake in Oklahoma, and crow in Missouri (all USA sites)then we have done all the game in Africa including warthog. Horse, rabbit and frogs have all been found in stews on my plate. To me it is not the line of “trying” but the line of “cooking” that stops me from using certain animals. Also I am amazed what I will eat if they tell me it is barbecued!

True, I do think cooking prep does have something to do with it. I could tolerate trying sausage (reindeer, venison) and stews (goat) and caribou steak sounded fine. But you are way on the other end of the scale from me, especially with the ‘sea urchins and slug type things’!! Thanks Julia for making me laugh

My parents in England used to love eating venison, pigeon and other game. It is very popular in France too. I recall when I was younger there was a great uproar about horse meat being exported from England to France (they probably don’t eat it any more). I do recall when I was at Oxford and invited to the “head table” where the dons (professors) sit at one college, for dinner – can’t remember which college now. I was so excited and thought we would be eating better food (they always have a different menu). We had bony rabbit stew. Now here in Jamaica I occasionally eat curry goat – but don’t really enjoy it. I don’t like the smell!

Thanks Emma. It is interesting how certain foods (horse meat, for example) slowly ease out of existence over time yet others continue. The one time I tried goat stew was in the Caribbean, while visiting Vieques. Somehow I missed it while in Jamaica.

It’s really strange, as I was researching information on an article on horse meat, I re-freshed my “read blogs’ page and saw your post pop up in the WordPress feed. I was thinking, like right on … Im not the only expat experiencing new cultures. I have not tried horse meat, nor have I desire to. I’m a sorta kinda veg-head, nothing hard core, but I do like a nice t-bone once in awhile. I hope you don’t mind, but I’ve added your link at the bottom of my post. 🙂 Happy Weekend.

We were fed horse meat on a school trip once…… it was not a nice experience finding out what we had eaten…

I lived in France for a year but could not bring myself to eat snails. I vowed I would at least try them but couldn’t. Every time I looked at them they turned my stomach. I have however tried snake (yes, like chicken) and frogs legs. That, I think, is my line and anything more obscure won’t end up on my plate.

Oh I would NOT want to be ‘surprised’ like that. I’m sure that some souls think that if they don’t tell you what you’re eating, you’ll like it and be okay with the knowledge after the fact. I personally think that does more harm than good – food lines aren’t just about taste, but about cultural taboos. Thanks for sharing Amanda

I am one of the 80% of Americans who support our proposed Federal ban on horse slaughter.

Americans don’t eat dogs, cats or horses. It’s a cultural taboo, except for a small radical fringe fighting back against the tide of protection for horses. Americans feel if other countries want to eat horse meat, they should find it from a country that agrees with their dietary choices.

We would feel the same if the Chinese were taking our dogs and cats .. I agree with the posters, there is a line in the sand.

I would not eat horse meat even without our “line in the sand” for health reasons.

Horses are not raised and regulated like food animals. Race horses get drugs that are anybody’s guess; the risk is too great IMO with snake venom, cancer drugs and underground drugs like .. no kidding .. Frog Juice, a neuro psychotic that kills pain and induces something like an LSD trip.

As for other food adventures, I used to like escargots. After seeing those lake snails come into our lakes, the line in the sand moved on the snails .. garlic butter and all: ))

I had no idea that horse meat was still an issue within the US, I just thought it was tiny pockets here and there. I’ll definitely check out the Forbes article. Thanks for taking the time to share more about what’s going on. And yes, the line in the sand on food definitely moves from time to time!